Upto 50 customers

[HWCS]

If you got to do it trad, I would suggest to cut channels to fit the panes of glass most should be close to the same size, being able to pull the water with one stroke makes the job faster.

Yeah theyre all 6" and i have a 6" blade

 

[HWCS]

Voice of wisdom, right there. Tis mainly other road users that are the problem. That's why I'm very reluctant to ride my 1952 BSA.

View attachment 21745

Ive bought myself an extra xmas prezzie coz ive been a really good boy this year. 

Now got 2008 Ninja & 1990 CBR 600f

 

[swc1]

Ive bought myself an extra xmas prezzie coz ive been a really good boy this year. 

Now got 2008 Ninja & 1990 CBR 600f

View attachment 22797

Nice rides.

 

[ched999uk]

You are building a nice collection there. I do like the Ninja though ? 

Do you have to insure each separately or can you get a multi bike type of policy?

What is next on the list for next year ? ?

 

[HWCS]

You are building a nice collection there. I do like the Ninja though ? 

Do you have to insure each separately or can you get a multi bike type of policy?

What is next on the list for next year ? ?

Ive found seperate insurance works out cheaper by nearly £100.

Next on the list is a cruiser, unsure what yet, but might buy a barn find and do it up.

This Ninja is having some work done, its got a new exhaust on loud af, putting a tail tidy on at the weekend with led rear light with inclusive indicators and then in new year shes having a custom paint job, with image below being the ctr piece of the paint job

 

[Bongofish]

Seems like an age since ive made an update in this thread, tbf ive not really had anything much to say works been going really well, 450ish customer, lost a few ditched a few and gained alot.

Only real update ive got is after last years £30.00 shop for local foodbank donation on behalf of my business and customers for xmas instead of cards for the customers, this year i doubled the donation to £60 and some customers also asked if id add a few quid and they'd donate.

So this years donation to the food bank came in at £90.55p

View attachment 22791

Sorry I have not read all this thread as it's 15 pages long haha. 

Are you still traditional or have you moved to waterfed? And why or why not?

Also I'm hitting around 200 customer mark now and have a job booked in every Saturday until February. And I feel like sometimes I get a little brain hurt when thinking about 200 customers and weekend work, how do you manage 450m

That's like 115 customers a week and then plus any weekend work. ?

You've done extremely well mate in 1.5 years. But wondering when you start getting to that amount of customers is there anything you've had to change? 

 

[HWCS]

Sorry I have not read all this thread as it's 15 pages long haha. 

Are you still traditional or have you moved to waterfed? And why or why not?

Also I'm hitting around 200 customer mark now and have a job booked in every Saturday until February. And I feel like sometimes I get a little brain hurt when thinking about 200 customers and weekend work, how do you manage 450m

That's like 115 customers a week and then plus any weekend work. ?

You've done extremely well mate in 1.5 years. But wondering when you start getting to that amount of customers is there anything you've had to change? 

Yes mate moved to WFP November 2019, 90% of my work is 6wkly, my work is all compact my biggest day milage wise is about 12miles from home but i have 25ish customers all within 2miles of each other.

I use spreadsheets on a daily basis all backed up on a netbook.

I had 230ish customers in March when we locked down, went back to work May 7th and picked so many walk ups it was bonkers.

Even with 450 customers i generally work 25hrs roughly monday-thursday, i try and have fridays off accept once a month where i do a housing developers.

That way fridays can be used for gfs or conny roof jobs.

 

[HWCS]

Little update before i go out into the frosty morning.

Have ordered a 2nd man set up for my vab as now at the stage where i NEED to take on a part timer, only need him between 2 & 6 days a month on my busiest days and when i fall behind, currently running nearly 3 weeks behind as i took 3 weeks off at xmas and then its been bloomin awful weather since i went back on the 11th.

Ordered everything i need from Bladeright, which seems to be my prefered shopping place, probably not the cheapest place to buy wverthing from but in all fairness Lee Martin has never let me down and is always just a call away for help and advice and goes above and beyond if and when needing anything in a hurry.

Pics of the new set up will follow when it all arrives and is installed

 

[dazmond]

Little update before i go out into the frosty morning.

Have ordered a 2nd man set up for my vab as now at the stage where i NEED to take on a part timer, only need him between 2 & 6 days a month on my busiest days and when i fall behind, currently running nearly 3 weeks behind as i took 3 weeks off at xmas and then its been bloomin awful weather since i went back on the 11th.

Ordered everything i need from Bladeright, which seems to be my prefered shopping place, probably not the cheapest place to buy wverthing from but in all fairness Lee Martin has never let me down and is always just a call away for help and advice and goes above and beyond if and when needing anything in a hurry.

Pics of the new set up will follow when it all arrives and is installed

How much are you earning a year to take on a part timer?

How big is your van and tank?

I work 25-30 hours a week(including admin,end of day jobs,etc which I class as part time with a 500L tank)and currently turnover between £46-48k a year.

It's not worth taking on a employee unless you can make a bit of extra money for yourself IMO....

 

[steve garwood]

Little update before i go out into the frosty morning.

Have ordered a 2nd man set up for my vab as now at the stage where i NEED to take on a part timer, only need him between 2 & 6 days a month on my busiest days and when i fall behind, currently running nearly 3 weeks behind as i took 3 weeks off at xmas and then its been bloomin awful weather since i went back on the 11th.

Ordered everything i need from Bladeright, which seems to be my prefered shopping place, probably not the cheapest place to buy wverthing from but in all fairness Lee Martin has never let me down and is always just a call away for help and advice and goes above and beyond if and when needing anything in a hurry.

Pics of the new set up will follow when it all arrives and is installed

Why ‘3 weeks behind?’

Just pick up where you left off and continue as normal.

I had ten days off, but who cares ?

 

[HWCS]

How much are you earning a year to take on a part timer?

How big is your van and tank?

I work 25-30 hours a week(including admin,end of day jobs,etc which I class as part time with a 500L tank)and currently turnover between £46-48k a year.

It's not worth taking on a employee unless you can make a bit of extra money for yourself IMO....

Just needing some help on my very busy days, he will only be working a few days a month.

Vans 650lt 

 

[HWCS]

Why ‘3 weeks behind?’

Just pick up where you left off and continue as normal.

I had ten days off, but who cares ?

I ment i had 3 weeks off at xmas so was 3weeks behind and all customers were informed id be 3 weeks later, but crappy weather and family circumstance mean ive lost a few extra days so im technically only a week further behind than i expected to be, so no biggie ??

 

[HWCS]

Seems an apt time for an update.

Have found myself picking up customers hand over fist since covid (we must be one of the few industries to have benefited from people being home more) some of my busy days have turned into a day and a half, and i dont like turning people away so decided a while ago to put on a part timer, ordered a 2nd person set up and its now all arrived, so yesterday (Thursday) i took out a lad who just wanted a few days here and there as id been let down by the lad that was going to come with me.

He got on really well, i sent him a few links to youtube vids at begining of the week and didnt think hed watch them.

The plan was for me to work and him to observe, we had 15 houses of mixed variety to do, so i did the first half a dozen and then he piped up "can i have a go' the next house was a standard straight forward bungalow so i didnt see an issue with it, we pulled up i was chatting to the owner and off he poped with the pole after a 7/8 minutes chatting i thought id better go check, but before i could get round the back he came strutting round, "done the back jon, ill do front now" 

So i went and had a look, spotless tbf couldnt have done it any better myself just quicker, so went back to the front and tbf he looked comfy and was bantering the old girl while he was cleaning.

I think i can safely say hes a natural.

We carried on for the rest of the round, and was finished at a good time.

Hes currently a chef on furlough but im thinking if i had him fulltime the amount of extra work i could take on would be ferocious. 

Gonna see how he gets on over next few weeks and what he wants to do, but if he says hed like to come on fulltime i think im gonna struggle to say no.

Pretty sure with him onboard i could comfortably cover 1000 customers on a 6weekly. Currently on my own i cover just over 400

 

[Davy G]

Seems an apt time for an update.

Have found myself picking up customers hand over fist since covid (we must be one of the few industries to have benefited from people being home more) some of my busy days have turned into a day and a half, and i dont like turning people away so decided a while ago to put on a part timer, ordered a 2nd person set up and its now all arrived, so yesterday (Thursday) i took out a lad who just wanted a few days here and there as id been let down by the lad that was going to come with me.

He got on really well, i sent him a few links to youtube vids at begining of the week and didnt think hed watch them.

The plan was for me to work and him to observe, we had 15 houses of mixed variety to do, so i did the first half a dozen and then he piped up "can i have a go' the next house was a standard straight forward bungalow so i didnt see an issue with it, we pulled up i was chatting to the owner and off he poped with the pole after a 7/8 minutes chatting i thought id better go check, but before i could get round the back he came strutting round, "done the back jon, ill do front now" 

So i went and had a look, spotless tbf couldnt have done it any better myself just quicker, so went back to the front and tbf he looked comfy and was bantering the old girl while he was cleaning.

I think i can safely say hes a natural.

We carried on for the rest of the round, and was finished at a good time.

Hes currently a chef on furlough but im thinking if i had him fulltime the amount of extra work i could take on would be ferocious. 

Gonna see how he gets on over next few weeks and what he wants to do, but if he says hed like to come on fulltime i think im gonna struggle to say no.

Pretty sure with him onboard i could comfortably cover 1000 customers on a 6weekly. Currently on my own i cover just over 400

Thanks for the update. Glad it's flying for you. You made it happen. Sounds like you've got a good un to work with you. There's a good chance he'll go it alone eventually though. He'd be a fool not to. Unless, you were to consider him investing in your business as a partner and you were to split the expenses and profits. Just a suggestion. Your business is your business of course ?

 

[HWCS]

Thanks for the update. Glad it's flying for you. You made it happen. Sounds like you've got a good un to work with you. There's a good chance he'll go it alone eventually though. He'd be a fool not to. Unless, you were to consider him investing in your business as a partner and you were to split the expenses and profits. Just a suggestion. Your business is your business of course ?

Yeah i guess thats always a risk with taking somebody on, hes only a young lad only 19/20, and im not even sure if he would consider a career change, so will see how the next few weeks play out while hes on furlough, tbf ive worked my nads off for the last 30yrs and i while i started this business whit certain plans, i didnt realise just how hard and fast it would grow, and im considering a 10yr plan where i can myself slow down at 55 and possibly 'retire' at 60 but keep the business running with employees.

 

[HWCS]

Worked 6hrs today and never took the van off the drive ??

Cleared the back of the van excluding the LB B2B charger and tank, repositioned 2 pumps 2 controllers 2 reels and repiped the lot, routed all the electrics tidy.

First day tomorrow as a 2 man team, will take a few pics of van tomorrow, a fewlittle tweaks to do but theyll wait a bit ??

 

[swc1]

Seems an apt time for an update.

Have found myself picking up customers hand over fist since covid (we must be one of the few industries to have benefited from people being home more) some of my busy days have turned into a day and a half, and i dont like turning people away so decided a while ago to put on a part timer, ordered a 2nd person set up and its now all arrived, so yesterday (Thursday) i took out a lad who just wanted a few days here and there as id been let down by the lad that was going to come with me.

He got on really well, i sent him a few links to youtube vids at begining of the week and didnt think hed watch them.

The plan was for me to work and him to observe, we had 15 houses of mixed variety to do, so i did the first half a dozen and then he piped up "can i have a go' the next house was a standard straight forward bungalow so i didnt see an issue with it, we pulled up i was chatting to the owner and off he poped with the pole after a 7/8 minutes chatting i thought id better go check, but before i could get round the back he came strutting round, "done the back jon, ill do front now" 

So i went and had a look, spotless tbf couldnt have done it any better myself just quicker, so went back to the front and tbf he looked comfy and was bantering the old girl while he was cleaning.

I think i can safely say hes a natural.

We carried on for the rest of the round, and was finished at a good time.

Hes currently a chef on furlough but im thinking if i had him fulltime the amount of extra work i could take on would be ferocious. 

Gonna see how he gets on over next few weeks and what he wants to do, but if he says hed like to come on fulltime i think im gonna struggle to say no.

Pretty sure with him onboard i could comfortably cover 1000 customers on a 6weekly. Currently on my own i cover just over 400

That's great to hear! 

The growth potential for the window cleaning and other service like ours is exploding now with more people home because of covid. 

Its time to capitalize. 

 

[HWCS]

Well first day today out with the new part timer.

Had a horrible start to the day when my 15month old leisure battery didnt wanna play ball and dropped down to a lowly 10.5 which ment we could only run i set up.

So while i was cleaning i sent the lad round the estate with a fistful of flyers.

I got through the first set of houses very slowly, picking up 3 new customers on that road from his flyer dropping.

Then jumped into the van and a quick call to the window cleaning guru that is @Pjj for a quick chat about my battery issue and as suspected it was just my battery that on the blink, so a jaunt to Halfords for a meatier 115ah leisure battery and a trickle charger £165 and Halfords wouldnt even lend me a 12mm spanner to change the battery over ???

So floored it home, swapped the battery over, stuck the 110ah one on the trickle charger which confused me so had a quick call to Tayna tech department who are outstanding, and have advised that u run one of batteries for 3-4 days in the van being topped up by the Bat2Bat charger while the other sits on trickle charger and rotate them.

Was back on the pole just after 1 and finished at 3.

The flyers the lad delivered in 2hrs this morning generated £115 of new work all on 6wkly.

So definately a day of ups n downs.

 

[ched999uk]

Are you running each setup from a different battery? If so it might be worth thinking about how you can reconfigure the cabling so you can run both pumps/controllers off same battery if necessary. It shouldn't be too difficult to do. As long as you are only using pumps not heaters or elec reels I am sure you would a complete days work off a single battery.

One thing to do is learn from the problem, it was good you had leaflets available and interesting that they worked very well. If you are getting that good a return might be worth doing more leaflet dropping in each of your locations as you go round. Maybe even say do 40 leaflets between you as soon as you pull up, then clean the windows you have booked in. That way people might see leaflets and then your van and call or pop out and get a quote?

Great recovery though and sounds like the new lad is going to be OK. Did you let him lose on any custy windows? 

 

[Davy G]

Well first day today out with the new part timer.

Had a horrible start to the day when my 15month old leisure battery didnt wanna play ball and dropped down to a lowly 10.5 which ment we could only run i set up.

So while i was cleaning i sent the lad round the estate with a fistful of flyers.

I got through the first set of houses very slowly, picking up 3 new customers on that road from his flyer dropping.

Then jumped into the van and a quick call to the window cleaning guru that is @Pjj for a quick chat about my battery issue and as suspected it was just my battery that on the blink, so a jaunt to Halfords for a meatier 115ah leisure battery and a trickle charger £165 and Halfords wouldnt even lend me a 12mm spanner to change the battery over ???

So floored it home, swapped the battery over, stuck the 110ah one on the trickle charger which confused me so had a quick call to Tayna tech department who are outstanding, and have advised that u run one of batteries for 3-4 days in the van being topped up by the Bat2Bat charger while the other sits on trickle charger and rotate them.

Was back on the pole just after 1 and finished at 3.

The flyers the lad delivered in 2hrs this morning generated £115 of new work all on 6wkly.

So definately a day of ups n downs.

A few minor equipment problems. But no one wrapped round a tree, mate.

A nuisance and an expense but tomorrow's another day, and hopefully a better one. ? If he's keen and good I reckon it'll be good. He did well with the canvassing. ? I bought a cheap set of spanners on a plastic wall mount (Aldi) ages ago, and mounted it on the side of the van.

 

[HWCS]

Are you running each setup from a different battery? If so it might be worth thinking about how you can reconfigure the cabling so you can run both pumps/controllers off same battery if necessary. It shouldn't be too difficult to do. As long as you are only using pumps not heaters or elec reels I am sure you would a complete days work off a single battery.

One thing to do is learn from the problem, it was good you had leaflets available and interesting that they worked very well. If you are getting that good a return might be worth doing more leaflet dropping in each of your locations as you go round. Maybe even say do 40 leaflets between you as soon as you pull up, then clean the windows you have booked in. That way people might see leaflets and then your van and call or pop out and get a quote?

Great recovery though and sounds like the new lad is going to be OK. Did you let him lose on any custy windows? 

Yeah running both set ups on a single battery.

On locations where i only have i house perstop ill send him about to flyer the road.

Exactly as you said though, him flyering while i was cleaning paid dividends.

Literally just came off the phone from another on so his £115 of work has just gone upto £135 of new work ?

Yeah let him loose on 3 houses all next door to one another, normally takes me 40minutes took him 65minutes but hell get quicker, like i said to another windy, there was a time when we all didnt know how to wiggle a pole ?